Elleke Boehmer's top 10 tips on scouting, survival and good citizenship

From the original 1908 edition of Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys. Tips gleaned by Elleke Boehmer, editor of the first and only critical edition of the scouting blueprint.

1. Keep your eyes about you at all times in order not to miss a thing. When tracking in the bush a tiny detail - a broken twig, a crushed can - may provide a crucial "sign" (of water, of food, of rescue, danger, wildlife).

This, for me as editor, was one of the most fascinating aspects of Scouting for Boys - that the non-bookish Baden-Powell advocated that the scout learn to "read" the countryside almost as if it were a book. The scout is invited to put "signs" together, in the same way as words come together to form meaningful sentences.

2. Breathe through your nose and keep your blood in good order. A mouth left hanging open aids and abets snoring - a dead giveaway in the bush.

Scouting for Boys is full of cranky Edwardian beliefs, some of them charming, others mind-boggling. The advice to keep the mouth shut at all times, unless speaking or whistling, was one of the more quirky bits of advice regarding a boy's health.

3. Always carry a rough towel. Its uses are endless, even when you find yourself in the bush without water.

This recommendation I must confess I found teasingly ambiguous. It tallies in some way with B-P's suggestion that when out tracking in dry terrain the scout keep his clothes clean by beating them with sticks. But why a rough towel?

4. Limit your intake of meat. Meat weighs you down.

This advice sprang to my attention for its relative contemporaneity. I've included it as an example of how parts of the book retain a freshness and direct appeal to our time, especially in the areas of exercise, diet and the environment.

5. Study other peoples' footwear. Shoes are a good indicator of character.

Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes was for B-P the picture of the ideal scout (as was Kipling's Kim), and this advice is derived virtually unadulterated from observations taken by the great detective in many of Conan Doyle's 1890s stories.

6. Sleep where possible in the open air and without heavy blankets. An overheated body produces distracting dreams.

It would be difficult to avoid mentioning B-P's famous predilection for sleeping out as he did - alone, virtually all his married life - as well as his aversion to anything, including "rich food", that might produce sexual stimulation. However he believed in speaking frankly to boys about the "dangers of self-abuse", more frankly than his first publishers believed acceptable at the time.

7. Whenever you can, "get a good laugh on". And make other people laugh, too; it does them good.

This is virtually a direct quote from the text, to suggest its unflagging chirpiness, its devotion to fun and games at all costs.

8. Be a friend to all.

This bit of advice - the fourth scout law - has often been touted in support of the alleged inclusiveness of the scout movement and its absence of class and race prejudice. B-P certainly did urge boys not to be snobs - but was he addressing middle class boys in the main, or all boys? The fourth law no doubt helped to promote the worldwide spread of scouting.

9. Play the game of life with good spirit, whatever your game may be.

Play up, play up, and play the game - be it the game of cricket or empire or life. For B-P it's far better to be in the game than standing on the sidelines as a spectator.

10. Be prepared to do your duty. Country first, self second.

Possibly the most important tip in scouting: a useful reminder in a century when human rights are regarded as having a prior claim to social duties.

· The original 1908 edition of Scouting for Boys by Robert Baden-Powell is published on March 11 2004 in a critical edition from Oxford University Press, edited by Elleke Boehmer.

About this article

Elleke Boehmer's top 10 tips on scouting, survival and good citizenship

This article was published on
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at 19.00 EST on Sunday 7 March 2004.
It was last modified at 09.54 EDT on Tuesday 22 July 2008.
It was first published at 09.54 EDT on Tuesday 22 July 2008.